Practical Boat Owner September 2022

Motoring on with life While on Maximus’s delivery trip from Chichester to Poole, we spotted a Trusty T23 motorboat. As Gilbert Park and I waited for the lifting bridge to open, this smart little boat nipped under the span. “Now that’s a PBO boat,” said Gilbert, impressed (so impressed, he later bought one!). I’ve always been intrigued as to what constitutes a ‘PBO motorboat’. Speed is not a factor, for sure; more commonly it’s a boat that is comfortable in all conditions, appealing to reluctant partners, easy to berth, to sail double- or single-handed, and – with rising fuel prices – not too expensive to run. I put the question to our expert Peter Poland, who in turn put the question to 10 motorboaters. It struck me that these owners chose motorboats with the…

Following the success of the Chichester Harbour Microplastics Symposium, Dr Corina Ciocan is now leading a team of specialists interested in developing quick tests to detect the impact of several chemical pollutants on marine organisms, with applicability in Chichester Harbour. The £1.9million study is financed by the EU Interreg Channel programme and is bringing together specialists from France and the UK (including Chichester Harbour Conservancy). The Interreg RedPol project, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, focuses on the endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) – pollutants able to induce reproductive, developmental and behavioural problems in the population of wild animals (and flora), which can generate an environmental imbalance. In estuaries and coastal areas, where EDCs can limit the production of fish and molluscs, these compounds impact environmental health as well as the associated economic…

Motoring on with life While on Maximus’s delivery trip from Chichester to Poole, we spotted a Trusty T23 motorboat. As Gilbert Park and I waited for the lifting bridge to open, this smart little boat nipped under the span. “Now that’s a PBO boat,” said Gilbert, impressed (so impressed, he later bought one!). I’ve always been intrigued as to what constitutes a ‘PBO motorboat’. Speed is not a factor, for sure; more commonly it’s a boat that is comfortable in all conditions, appealing to reluctant partners, easy to berth, to sail double- or single-handed, and – with rising fuel prices – not too expensive to run. I put the question to our expert Peter Poland, who in turn put the question to 10 motorboaters. It struck me that these owners…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Share your news and diary dates: email Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com First evidence of GRP boats’ impact on aquatic organisms Microscopic analysis of oysters, mussels and sediment from Chichester Harbour has uncovered a dizzying number of glass fibres linked back to boatyards and derelict vessels. The ‘really worrying’ findings by University of Brighton researchers who undertook studies off the coast of Hampshire and West Sussex have worldwide implications, yet there is no practical solution for recycling fibreglass boats in sight, with a boom in boating, plus increasing numbers of early glass reinforced plastic (GRP) vessels reaching end of life. Mystery shards Dr Corina Ciocan, Principal Lecturer in Marine Biology, at the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Brighton told PBO it took a lot of detective work to discover what…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Share your news and diary dates: email Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com First evidence of GRP boats’ impact on aquatic organisms Microscopic analysis of oysters, mussels and sediment from Chichester Harbour has uncovered a dizzying number of glass fibres linked back to boatyards and derelict vessels. The ‘really worrying’ findings by University of Brighton researchers who undertook studies off the coast of Hampshire and West Sussex have worldwide implications, yet there is no practical solution for recycling fibreglass boats in sight, with a boom in boating, plus increasing numbers of early glass reinforced plastic (GRP) vessels reaching end of life. Mystery shards Dr Corina Ciocan, Principal Lecturer in Marine Biology, at the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Brighton told PBO it took a lot…

Hampshire-based Boatbreakers is one of the few UK firms specialising in the disposal and recycling of end of life boats. Spokesman Luke Edney believes there could be a “tidal wave of abandonments” in the next 15 years. He told PBO: “The reason I say a tidal wave is because boats started being made from fibreglass in the 1960s, those are now naturally getting a bit long in the tooth and losing value. Then you’ve got the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 00s boats getting older and losing their value. As fibreglass technology improved over the years, it was made thinner, some of the younger boats are not as tough as the older ones. “Some places are developing technology to change that, and I’m sure there are places that would try and take a boat…